Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has launched a sharp attack on Fifa president Gianni Infantino over his abandoned plan to commercialise World Cup rights.
Masters told BBC Sport that Fifa had “pressed the self-destruct button” by attempting to sell a 21% stake in a new company managing the commercial and ticketing rights of all Fifa competitions.
The proposed vehicle, Fifa Forward Enterprise, was scrapped following fierce criticism from several confederations, most notably Uefa, which threatened a boycott of all Fifa competitions.
Masters made clear the Premier League stands firmly behind the English Football Association’s decision to withdraw support for Infantino ahead of a Fifa presidential election scheduled for March.
“This is a problem of Fifa’s making,” Masters said. “This is a self-inflicted wound. The organisation has pressed the self-destruct button, and the consequence of that flow into the solutions that need to be found.”
Masters also called for a “unity candidate” to emerge before the 18 November nomination deadline, saying such a person should pursue meaningful reform of the organisation and its presidential role.
“I think an emerging unity candidate should have on his or her agenda reform of Fifa, and perhaps even reform of the president’s role and how it interacts with those things,” he said.
Infantino has received backing from the confederations of Africa, South America, and Oceania, as well as from senior executives at a meeting held in Morocco earlier this month.
However, Uefa, Concacaf, and the Asian Football Confederation jointly accused Infantino of breaking trust “through deception” in an open letter signed by the presidents and general secretaries of all three bodies.
Masters was equally outspoken on the controversy surrounding USA striker Folarin Balogun’s red card at the recent World Cup, which Spain won by beating Argentina in the final.
Balogun was shown a straight red card for a foul on Bosnia-Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic during a last-32 victory, only for his automatic one-match ban to be suspended for a year following a request from President Donald Trump.
The United States subsequently lost their last-16 match against Belgium 4-1, and Masters described the episode as deeply troubling for the integrity of football governance.
“I don’t understand why Fifa doesn’t have a very straightforward red card review process in place, like we do in the Premier League, for example,” Masters said. “That I think would have been much a better way to proceed.”
On domestic matters, Masters addressed the controversy surrounding Chelsea’s punishment after the club admitted making £47m in secret payments to unregistered agents and third parties over transfers between 2011 and 2018.
Chelsea were fined £10m and handed a suspended ban from registering new players, with a six-point deduction subsequently set aside on appeal after owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital self-reported 74 rule breaches when they bought the club in 2022.
“In the situation with Chelsea, obviously it’s historic. It’s very different to PSR cases,” Masters said, pushing back against suggestions the punishment was too lenient compared to the points deductions handed to Everton and Nottingham Forest in 2024.
Masters also acknowledged that the independent commission ruling on Manchester City’s more than 100 alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules is running beyond expected timelines.
“I do accept it’s taking longer than expected, and I understand that people want to find out as soon as possible what’s going on, but I simply can’t provide that,” he said.
The Premier League season gets underway on Friday when champions Arsenal, managed by Mikel Arteta, host promoted Coventry, with Masters expressing confidence that the competition will deliver despite a summer of significant managerial and player movement.
